Our first stop was the State Library where Doug was able to look up some family history on the Grattans. They came from Ireland to Melbourne when his Gt-Grandfather was 14, he subsequently went to NZ about 10 years later and married Ellen Gorton born 1857 in Otahuhu. Her eldest daughter Isabelle was Doug's Grandmother whom he never met as she died very young. Gt - grandmother Ellen died aged 94. You can actually hear Ellen Grattan talk about her life through this interview made in the 1950s.
St George was slaying the Dragon in front of the library where we had our packed lunch in good Kiwi fashion.
Following lunch we thought a visit to St Kilda Beach was in order. We found a tram with 'St Kilda Beach' on the front. Pretty easy, eh? 'Nothing can go wrong'. We passed Luna Park entrance and the route details showed St Kilda Beach as one of the next stops. But the driver didn't announce stops any more and on we went for miles into the suburbs. Our trip ended when the ticket checkers hopped on board and put us off to head back. (They were actually quite nice, they yelled at the driver - told us that he was a trainee. They asked us if we were 'seniors', it's celebrating oldies this week - free transport etc.)
We decided to give St Kilda a miss and scuttled back into the CBD. The picture shows the view of leafy suburbs passing the tram.
Southgate is a flash shopping centre that can't be getting many visitors as the main entrance on the side of the Yarra is a demolition zone. We took this picture to look back on one day.
Melbourne shops were the usual bustle, we liked this one that sells Russian Dolls. We didn't go into Myer as we got lost inside there last visit.
2 comments:
You should have got off at Luna Park. It's a short walk beside Luna park and you are at the beach.
You should have got off at Luna Park. It's a short walk beside Luna park and you are at the beach.
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